Who’s Benny? No one knows for sure, but he’s been slipping $100 bills signed “Benny,” into grocery items at stores in South Salem, Oregon. And as this story reports, people have responded by passing on their newly found bills. One family spent their windfall on groceries for the homeless; another gave theirs to a pharmacy fund for people who can’t afford prescriptions.

In homage, the local newspaper now runs a “Be Like Benny” page, compiling Benny stories and a list of Benny beneficiaries, and invites one and all to tell about their own Benny-esque moments here. (Our favorite: the woman who found a C-note in her box of Great Value cornflakes)

In an age of $50 gas-tank-fill-ups, when 100 bucks never seems to go far enough, we all need a Benny—or a Lisa or Frank or an Amy—to remind how far a dollar can stretch—all the way across town, to the person who needs it most.

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